38 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



MABCH 



Slow-growing hardy shrubs— The Swanley Horticultural College — 

 Gardening as an employment for women — Auoubas berries — 

 Planting Asparagus — ^Brussels Sprouts — Sowing annuals — A Ust 

 of flowering creepers — 'The Poet in the City' — Old illustrated 

 gardening books. 



March 2nd. — Of all the low-growing quite hardy shrubs, 

 especially in small gardens, nothing is more useful for 

 picking and arranging with all kinds of flowers than the 

 common Box. The kinds vary a Uttle, some being larger- 

 leaved than others, and the growth of some plants a Httle 

 more graceful and branching. The most desirable kinds 

 can quite easily be propagated by cuttings stuck into the 

 ground in a shady place in spring. Its depressing 

 characteristic for beginners is that Box is very slow- 

 growing. Next to this in utUity comes the common 

 Barberry, or Berberis vulgaris, as we ought to call it, 

 which is so well known to everybody now, as it is sold in 

 the streets of London aU through the winter months with 

 its leaves dyed a dull-red colour. How this is managed 

 I do not know ; I think it spoils the beautiful foliage by 

 making it all of one tone. With us it turns brown in 

 severe winters, vrith an occasional red leaf, but in damp 

 soils it gets much redder. Berberis is one of those things 

 much sown about by the birds, for they eat its pretty 

 purple berries in quantities. The young seedlings which 

 come up with us in the beds and shrubberies are easily 

 moved when quite young, and can be put where they are 



